AI Is Killing The Current Web Publishing Model

The Rise of AEO and What It Means for Affiliate Marketers

For years, SEO — Search Engine Optimisation — has been the bread and butter of affiliate marketing. Get your content to rank on Google, bring in organic traffic, and let the conversions roll in. But in 2025, there’s a new acronym shaking things up: AEO. Answer Engine Optimisation. And it’s not just a gimmick. As platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and voice assistants become the go-to way for people to ask questions and get answers,…

AI Is Killing The Current Web Publishing Model

“Today, 75 percent of the queries… get answered without you leaving Google.” – SearchEngineLand

For more than 15 years, the search engine has been the backbone of the economic model of the web. The logic was clear: content creators wrote, published, optimized for SEO and, in return, got visits from Google, monetized with advertising or affiliates, and could continue to produce. However, this value chain is collapsing. The main reason is the transformation towards what has been called the zero-click Internet. That is, an ecosystem in which …